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Spinnaker

Low-contrast, slightly wide sans serif based on lettering from French and British ship travel posters.

Display 1 style by Elena Albertoni OFL

Spinnaker is a sans serif display typeface designed by Elena Albertoni, based on French and British lettering from posters advertising travel by ship. Spinnaker has one Regular weight with 260 glyphs, low stroke contrast and slightly wide letters. Spinnaker is released under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 and is intended for medium to large sizes.

Spinnaker font preview card
Preview drawn by trendhub from the font files.
Designer
Elena Albertoni
Classification
Display
License
SIL Open Font License 1.1
Styles
1 1 weight
Variable font
No
Glyphs
260
Languages checked
13 see the list
Last updated
version 1.001

Official source: Google Fonts. Facts on this page were read from the font files and the source’s published data.

Try Spinnaker

Sample text

Type over the sample to test your own words. The preview loads a Latin subset of Spinnaker; the download contains the complete files.

Spinnaker font specimen: alphabet, numerals and weights
Spinnaker specimen: alphabet, numerals and weights. Image drawn by trendhub from the font files.

Weights and styles

  • Regular 400Spinnaker Regular

About Spinnaker

Spinnaker is a sans serif typeface for display use. Its source, according to the official notes, is the lettering of French and British posters that advertised sea voyages. The letters are a little wider than in a standard sans and the strokes vary only slightly in thickness. The specimen shows generous round letters such as O, C and G, a splayed capital M, and stroke ends cut at a slight angle, which keeps a trace of hand lettering in an otherwise plain design. Elena Albertoni designed Spinnaker; the copyright notice names Sorkin Type Co. One Regular weight is available, with no italic or bold, and the font is not variable. The 260 glyphs cover Western European Latin; French is covered except for the rare capital Ÿ. The notes recommend medium to large sizes.

Where Spinnaker works

Travel and tourism posters
The design goes back to poster lettering for ship travel, and its wide capitals fill a headline line.
Website headlines and subheads
The recommended range is medium to large sizes, which is where headings and intro lines sit.
Coastal and nautical branding
A name set in the round, slightly wide capitals recalls shipping-line lettering.
Menus and shop signs
Low contrast keeps the strokes solid on signs and printed menus read at arm's length or further.
Pull quotes
A sentence or two at large size shows the angled stroke ends that disappear in small text.

Glyphs

!"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~¡¢

Latin and Latin Extended characters in the preview subset; the complete family has 260 glyphs.

Language support

The family contains the core letters these languages are written with:

  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Spanish
  • Portuguese
  • Italian
  • Dutch
  • Swedish
  • Norwegian
  • Danish
  • Finnish
  • Icelandic
  • Catalan

Rarely used letters that are not in the font: French Ÿ.

Character sets found in the files: latin. The language list is a check of required letters against the font, not a promise of typographic quality in each language.

License

SIL Open Font License 1.1Copyright (c) 2011 by Sorkin Type Co (www.sorkintype.com), with Reserved Font Name "Spinnaker".

What the license allows

  • Use the fonts in personal and commercial work, in print, on the web and in apps.
  • Modify the fonts and build new versions from them.
  • Redistribute the fonts, on their own or bundled with software, as long as the license text and copyright notice go with them.

Conditions

  • The fonts cannot be sold by themselves.
  • A modified version must stay under the same license and cannot use a Reserved Font Name without the copyright holder's permission.
  • The authors' names cannot be used to promote a modified version without permission.

This is a short summary, not legal advice. The license text decides: read the full OFL text. A copy is included in the download.

Fonts that pair with Spinnaker

Alegreya Sans Sans Serif

Spinnaker is a display face for headings; Alegreya Sans is a sans serif family with 7 weights that can set the body text beside it.

Abhaya Libre Serif

Spinnaker is a display face for headings; Abhaya Libre is a serif family with 5 weights that can set the body text beside it.

Cairo Sans Serif

Spinnaker is a display face for headings; Cairo is a sans serif family with 8 weights that can set the body text beside it.

Suggestions come from simple rules on the records: a contrasting classification and enough weights to carry body text. They are a starting point, not a verdict.

Use Spinnaker on the web

Download the family and host the files on your own site, then declare them in CSS. Please do not link to the files on trendhub.net: preview files here are subsets and their addresses change.

CSS, self-hosted
@font-face {
  font-family: "Spinnaker";
  src: url("/assets/fonts/Spinnaker-Regular.ttf") format("truetype");
  font-weight: 400;
  font-style: normal;
  font-display: swap;
}

body {
  font-family: "Spinnaker", sans-serif;
}

Or load it from the official source. Google Fonts serves Spinnaker with this markup:

HTML, Google Fonts

Things to know

One weight
Spinnaker has Regular 400 only. Emphasis needs a second typeface or a change of size.
Drawn for medium and large sizes
The official notes name medium to large sizes as the suitable range.
Western European Latin
Only the Latin subset is present; French lacks the rare capital Ÿ.

FAQs

Is Spinnaker free for commercial use?

Yes, under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. Spinnaker may be used, modified and redistributed in personal and commercial work; it cannot be sold by itself, and a modified version stays under the same license and may not use a Reserved Font Name without permission.

Who designed Spinnaker?

Spinnaker was designed by Elena Albertoni. The copyright notice in the license names Sorkin Type Co.

How many weights does Spinnaker have?

Spinnaker has one weight, Regular 400, without an italic.

What is Spinnaker based on?

According to its official description, Spinnaker takes its forms from French and British poster lettering that advertised voyages by ship.

Which languages does Spinnaker support?

Spinnaker includes the letters needed for English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Catalan and the Nordic languages. French is covered except for capital Ÿ.

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